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Tuesday, October 30, 2012

I freaking love halloween! I do! But this year, it hasn't felt like halloween time for me. Maybe because my brain feels like it's spinning constantly inside my head?!

That's probably it.

I'm sure that's completely normal. :)

Usually during the month of October I'm overwhelmed with feelings of magic and witchiness and spells and all sorts of halloween goodness (not to mention CANDY!!!!). I want my magic back! lol

So, in the spirit of halloween and books that are magical, filled with ghosts and mind readers, I want to share FOUR wonderful books with you that are all *FREE* right now on Amazon.

I've talked about them before, but I'm talking about them again. It's funny... they're all series (and lucky for you, if you get hooked after the 1st book, almost all the other books are out and so you don't have to wait!!!).

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

I know I keep telling you "thank you" like every chance I get, but I wish you knew me in real life...

I wish you knew JUST HOW MUCH I SINCERELY MEAN IT.

How when I tell you thank you, my eyes glaze over, my chest and stomach tighten, my breath hitches... but most of all, I wish there was another flipping phrase other than "thank you" to express how truly appreciative I am for all of you.

I've told you before that The Perfect Game isn't my first book. And if you know anything about Self Published ("Indie") authors, you know that we work our asses off. It's one thing to actually sit down and write an entire book, but it's another thing to get people to not only read it, but like it enough to want to read more of what you write.

It's been a long road for me. At least it FEELS like it's been a long road. I put out my first book in August 2011 and ever since then i've spent countless hours online trying to reach an audience...my audience. I've researched other writer's blogs, newspaper articles on self publishing, articles on trends, what to do, how to reach people, how to market, i've joined groups, indie clubs filled with other authors trying to figure out the exact same thing... how do we get readers in this saturated market to FIND and READ our books?! And how do we do ALL OF THIS, while still writing our next book?!?!?

It's a lot of work.

And trust me, i'm not complaining.

Not one bit.

Because all of that hard work has brought me to where we are today. And I feel like it makes me even MORE thankful. I know what it's like to not experience what I'm experiencing right now. I know the other side of the coin. I've lived it.

Which is why I tell you so freaking obsessively how thankful I am for you. And when you tell me that my book touched your soul, your heart, your guts- I AM OVERWHELMED. And when you tell me that you're telling everyone you know that they have to read this book- I AM GRATEFUL. And when you tell me that you've written a review and posted about it on facebook, or tweeted about it- I AM APPRECIATIVE.

So I just wanted you all to know (again) that I don't take you for granted. I don't take this for granted. And I literally, physically and emotionally, appreciate you more than you can ever truly know. THANK YOU.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

So a bunch of you are just now finding me and my books... which is flipping AWESOME, don't get me wrong.

I LOVE IT!

I LOVE YOU!!!

I can't tell y'all that enough!!! :)

But before you found me, I'd already written two books. And one of those books is a YA series (in dreams)... it's not a cliffhanger type of series, it's just a series in the sense that the characters' story continues... or actually PREtinues. I know that's not a word. But basically, the second book in the series takes us to the past, in a past life where we experience the connection the characters have to each other and why we're drawn to particular people, or why we hate them for no reason, etc. Basically, it will make In Dreams a much stronger book once you have all their past to take into consideration.

So I really need to work on that story. I'd intended to release it this year, but at this point, there is no way that's going to happen. But I want to write it. I want to finish it. And in all honesty, I think i'll pick it up again tomorrow (it's half way done. eh, maybe a third).

And then I want to seriously think about writing a 2nd book in The Perfect Game. But I want it to make sense. I want it to be for the right reasons- and I want to feel PULLED toward the next story I want to tell for those characters.

Basically, I want to have a good story. And I don't want to rush it, or force it, or write something because everyone is demanding me too. I want to write it because my heart is demanding me too. Because Dean, Melissa, Jack & Cassie won't take no for an answer. lol I just want to do it justice.

But it has to make sense. And right now, I can barely think outside of the story I just wrote, so it's hard for me to think outside of the box creatively in continuing this story, or spinning it off. So just bear with me.

I promise that when that lightning idea for TPG 2 strikes me, you'll be the first to know!

Until then...keep reading books you love, and reviewing them, and telling people to read them. "Reading is dreaming with open eyes"

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Oh em, mother f'n gee y'all!!!! We are currently in the Amazon Top 100!!!!!!! Who knows how long we'll stay there? It could change in an hour and it will all be a distant memory, but as of right now... WE !!! ARE!!! THERE!!!

And so I wanted to tell you THANK YOU! so much!!!

Thank you for writing those reviews on amazon and barnes & noble... for telling your friends they "must read" this book, for posting about it on facebook, for tweeting, for writing it on bathroom walls. oops. lol

Just thank you. Sincerely. Your good reviews, your excited word spreading, it's all I can ask for as an author. :)

Now i have to go babysit my friend's kid for a few hours. My life is tres glamorous. lol

ps- we WILL be having a dean carter discussion soon. and I want y'all back here for it! :)

Keep those reviews, posts and emails to me coming- I love hearing from you guys! Every.single.one of you!

Monday, October 08, 2012

That we don't really take vacations. There are no weekends, no holidays, no days
off... There is working overtime, working nights, long hours...

Because
our brain is ALWAYS thinking of the next story to write, or what we're writing
now, or what we could write better.

There is no off switch on a creative
mind.

Hell, even when we're sleeping we're usually dreaming about our
stories or our characters.

It's funny because we work so hard on our
stories and it takes us months to write them, edit them, send them off to the
editor, make the changes, format them, go through last minute additions, etc...
and you would think that once we released our book that we'd sit back, breath a
sigh of relief and ENJOY the moment.

But you know what most of us
do?

Do you?

We fucking haul ass back to our computer and start
working on the NEXT book.

Because we can't sit still.

Because we
don't turn off.

Because we don't know how to relax and enjoy the
moment.

And because if we don't start writing that next book, we feel
like we're falling behind. Our books don't write themselves. Lord knows it would
be much easier if they did. But they don't.

I'm not sure about everyone
else, but I remember releasing my first book a little over a year ago and
thinking, "I just need to get ANOTHER book out there. I need to have two!" And
then I released my second book and thought, "I just need to have another. I need
to have a library of books for people to choose from!"

It's never
enough.

I definitely don't write fast enough.

Some days I feel
like I don't write good enough (that's for damn sure).

So basically,
being a writer means that you're a crazy person. LOL A crazy person who doesn't
know how to stop, slow down, breathe, relax, enjoy, chill the f out, etc.

I constantly WANT to be writing. I love the process of creating- even
when it's stressful, painful, sleep depriving and anything but relaxing. When
i'm not writing I feel like i'm not progressing. I feel like i'm being lazy.
Like I spent the whole day at work, not working.

So yeah. That's what
being a writer means to ME. I really hope i'm not the only one. lol

Friday, October 05, 2012

Holy balls, Chicago was in the future... then it was ALMOST HERE... then it was here... and now it's gone.

*insert ugly cry*

C-H-I-C-A-G-O

I loved ya.

For real.

I don't know where to start.
I don't know where to end.
I don't know how to attempt to "sum" up or "cliff note" the epicness that was the TFEIC (thank you mollie harper for the website of awesomeness)!!!!!

I assume, I could start off thanking people. Like my incredible author soulmate, Colleen Hoover, whom without, we would have never had this event! It started out silly, then turned into something more real, then exploded like one of tara's vagina hands (or something like that). But really, thank you Colleen for hosting this incredible, incredible event. And thank you SARAH WHORE HANSEN!!!!!, Melissa Brown and in the beginning stages, Fred LeBaron for busting ass to put it all together, make it seamless (at least for us authors), and organize the hell out of this chaos!

It was so worth it!

Thank you to everyone who had to take off work, leave your children in the hands of your husbands (lord help us all), travelled alone for the first time, saved your dollars to attend, saved your dollars to buy books, and everything else you had to do just to come meet some Indie (or ex-indie) authors.

It is because of YOU readers that we are changing the landscape of the reading world. I know it wasn't easy to get there for some of you, but I hope it exceeded even your wildest expectations.

My expectations are always low, so it blew the hell out of mine. HAHA But really, I didn't know what to expect- or what to plan for- but it was amazing!

I had the best time meeting my fellow authors, meeting my readers, meeting people who weren't my readers, hanging out, molesting guys with weird pockets in their pants in elevators, grabbing fred's booty, long walks on the beach with becca, slumber party in everyone's pants with kellan kyle, making blow up dolls do inappropriate things to each other on sc stephens bed (appropriate, no?), dancing my ass off until my jeans ripped, cat calling professional ping pong players cause those really exist!!!, eating goat with some fellow goat lovers, realizing that every american who attempts to do their best jenny aussie voice will almost always sound british, finding my long lost little sister amanda, MEETING CHRIS PINE!!!!!!!... TWICE!!!! lol, finding love in the hotel starbucks, harassing the local crew on their lunch break (poor guys), PHOTO SHOOT IN BLOOMINGDALE'S!!!! (not weird at all), holding mm's hand in the bar- for the love of god woman, do not let go of my hand! lol, trying to hail a cab on a clearly cabless friday night until you say fuck it and start walking..until you say fuck it again, and steal a cab, hanging out in a bar that calls itself a hotel, getting mini vibrator's as gifts, pretending that only dead people need sleep so you simply NEVER.DO.IT.

You guys. Sincerely. I had so much fun with all of you. It wasn't enough time. There were people I never even got to see. There were people I only saw for a moment. I wanted more. I wanted to be able to hang out so much more... It's hard to organize chaos.

Words cannot express how much I love and appreciate every single one of you. I hope that everyone who attended and stayed had as much fun as I did. Thank you for EVERYTHING!